Eating vegan, running long distances and being 20-something.

2/13/18: Final Day of Trekking

We woke up to the sounds of the young monks doing their daily morning chanting.

The monasteryWhere we slept

At 7 we had breakfast: crepes with honey and fruit. The crepes were definitely made with an egg or two, but I ate them anyway because otherwise I would have had nothing to eat (plus, the eggs probably came from their backyard).

CrepesBreakfast area

We left around 8 am for our last day of trekking. I was a little sad that our adventure was coming to a close.

After a bit of walking we got to the first waterfall, where we had to climb rocks and maneuver around trees. It was really fun– I love when hikes become a bit more adventurous and challenging. There was a dog who had followed us all the way from the monastery, and she was able to jump across the river & rocks; it was pretty amazing. She would follow us all the way to lunch.

The first waterfall

Scaled a small wall

We kept walking, and eventually we reached an area with a bunch of different little waterfalls clustered together. We sat and chilled there before moving on.

Kids bathing by the waterfallGroup shot!

We walked up one last big hill, and on the other side of the hill was a river bank. The boys got in and swam for a bit, but Hannah and I opted not to since we didn’t want to get wet.

Boys will be boys…

There was a truck waiting for us a few hundred meters away from where we were swimming, and we climbed in to go to the lunch spot.

All the other groups were at the restaurant when we got there.
My lunch was pretty sad– I could only eat the fried water cress and rice because everything else had peanuts.

After we finished up lunch, we got in a little boat to Inle Lake. It was a really cool ride– we started in this little canal with huts and rice fields, and then that canal opened up into the massive lake. I fell asleep for a bit because it was so calming… oops.

The canalInle Lake

We got off the boat after about an hour, thanked our guide, and then walked over to our hostel, Ostello Bello (pretty much all of us were staying there by chance). We all showered, rested for a bit, and then met on the roof for happy hour.

The rooftop bar was so nice!

I just have to add in here that I was V happy to poo after 3 days of not being able to due to only having access to squat toilets. I don’t know why, but I am unable to poo while squatting. Which is sad, considering that is the way we pooped for centuries before the sit-down toilet was invented. It made me realize how much society removes you from your natural state by adding in things like toilets, clothing, shoes, make up, processed food, etc…

We were hungry around 7, so we (the trekking group + a guy who was also sleeping in Hannah and I’s dorm room and was on the roof with us) went for dinner at an Indian restaurant called Ever Light 2.

The new guy who came with us, the roommate, was really freaking annoying. He was a 19 year-old (but looked about 28) German bartender who spoke with an English accent for some reason…? He talked about himself the entire time and would interrupt other people so he could keep talking about himself. And anytime anyone told a story or would mention something about themselves, he made sure to direct the convo back to himself and tell a (boring, inconsequential) story about himself. I could not hide my contempt and was basically rolling my eyes every time he spoke.

To make matters worse, this restaurant had the SLOWEST SERVICE EVER. We literally waited 2 hours for our food. So the new guy was able to pack in a lot of stories. We were all STARVING and ate about 5 bowls of the squiggly chickpea chips they gave us to snack on. Thank god they had snacks. And the beer was super cheap (800 kyat, or 60 cents, for one). But my food was not so exciting. I got aloo gobi, and asked for it to be spicy, but it was pretty bland. I had to add more chilis to make it actually spicy.

I don’t remember what Rob was talking about here…

ANYWAYYYY after that experience, we went back to the hostel and shared another beer together before going to bed. We were all exhausted.